


Needs Must When A Dark Lord Drives

by toasterpop (auntbijou)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Based on a Tumblr Post, Fix-It, Gen, Old Gods, One Shot, Paganism, Prongs on Steroids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-06
Updated: 2019-09-06
Packaged: 2020-10-11 08:29:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20543138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/auntbijou/pseuds/toasterpop
Summary: When Voldemort comes knocking at the door, James Potter makes a move out of sheer desperation and receives help from an unexpected quarter.





	Needs Must When A Dark Lord Drives

**Author's Note:**

> This ficlet is based off a Tumblr post by **hotwartsaheadcanon** that wondered why James Potter, lacking a wand, didn’t just transform into Prongs when Voldemort turned up. This may not be exactly what the poster intended, but this is where my mind went. Also influenced by a piece of fanart titled “Celtic Marauders” by LJ user leelastarsky that was on my hard drive from YEARS ago.

“Lily, take Harry and go!” James shouted, pushing his son into his wife’s arms. “Hurry, I’ll hold him off!”

Lily took one look at his face, then took Harry and ran up the stairs. He heard the sound of furniture moving and knew she was setting up the protective ritual in Harry’s room, just as they planned. Now to give her time. He flicked his wrist and looked at his hand in surprise when his wand didn’t appear. Then he remembered, he’d been making colored light bubbles to amuse Harry and set his wand on the table to lean forward and tickle the toddler. He turned to return to the living room to grab it, and later he would ask himself why he hadn’t just _summoned_ the damn thing to his hand. But the door shattered and Voldemort was there. There was… no time to think and as the Dark Lord raised his wand, preparing to enter the house, James thought desperately of any wandless defensive spells he might know that could work, any prank spells, _anything_ to give the two people he loved most the time they needed and in a sheer moment of desperation did the only thing he could think of to do.

“_Cernunnos neartú dom!!_” he cried, throwing his hands open, palms to the sky. 

He felt himself start to shift into _Prongs_, felt the magic swirling around and through him… and then he felt something slam into him with all the force of a meteor, and everything went bright and blinding… and then… he was _more_…

Voldemort smiled as he approached the house, seeing the family happily seated, James Potter conjuring bubbles for his infant son to play with while his darling mudblood wife looked on. _Severus would be insanely jealous at the look on the mudblood’s face_, he thought, and pondered his promise to save her for his potions master. Perhaps, provided she was obedient and let him kill her son. 

He crossed the wards and watched, amused, as the parents reacted, looking toward the door before the man snatched the baby up and pushed him into the mudblood’s arms. He could hear Potter shouting about holding him off, and he chuckled. The fool! As if he could possibly counter any spells or last more than three seconds against Lord Voldemort. James Potter may have come off best in their previous encounters, but he was always with other people. “Let us see how you do on your own,” he hissed softly as he aimed his wand at the door. “_Bombarda!_”

The door blew inward and Voldemort had a brief glimpse of James Potter staring in horror at his empty hand. “Oh, how divine, the gods surely must love me,” he laughed. “James Potter without his wand, my, my, how complacent has life among the Muggles made us.” He strode forward eagerly to enter the house, intending to simply kill the man when a flare of green white light blinded him, and Voldemort threw up his hands to block it out, staggering back as a wave of wild magic slammed into him. He heard a heavy thump, as if something enormous had just hit the floor and lowered his hands, peering through the door as something moved in the pale light, and then a massive creature came through the ruins of the door, a creature limned in green light, a head with a massive rack of antlers, like giant hands reaching up into the sky, antlers hung with moss and a gleaming copper torque on each side, and he could only stare up and up and up as the massive form towered over him. A hoof the size of a dinner plate struck the floor and glowing eyes narrowed as the creature stared at him. 

“What the…” was all Voldemort had time to say before the massive elk charged him and flung him out into the yard.

It didn’t stop, it followed him as he landed and he was caught up again in the antlers that slashed into and through him before tossing him again. 

Voldemort screamed as the creature thundered after him, the massive hooves stomping into him when he landed, crashing over and over into his broken body, until it lowered its head again and with one slice of the all too sharp antlers, his head was separated from his body. 

The _Megaloceros_ Elk raised its head to the moon and let out a triumphant cry as something black and misty swirled up from Voldemort’s crumpled body. The Elk shifted, flowing into a large man with broad shoulders and a narrow waist, the antlers now sprouting from his head as he pulled an earthen jug from a pouch at his side and opened it. “I do not think so, Tom Marvolo Riddle,” Cernunnos said as the mist was sucked into the jug. “James Potter is one of my own, marked by my own hand, and ye’ll not be harming him, his lady wife, nor his bairn. I think I’ll gather up the rest o’ ye, and send ye on for thy weighing. And I do think ye’ll be found wanting.” His head turned and his glowing eyes fixed on something by the gate. “Ah, little betrayer, d’ye think I do not see ye there? I marked thee as well, lad, and I’ll be takin’ yer gift back. That’s the price ye pay for betrayal,” he growled and held out a hand, making a pulling gesture. 

The man crouched by the gate cried out and fell to the ground, his hands on his chest. “I… I didn’t mean to!” he cried out. “I couldn’t help it!”

“Don’t bother to lie to a _god_, laddie, we know thy secrets,” the antlered man said, leaning over him. “We knew thy weakness but there was hope ye’d overcome it. And now, ye’ll pay the price as well.” He slapped the man’s forehead. “There, Peter Pettigrew, wear the mark of a traitor. All will see it, no magic will hide it. A pity it’ll break yer good mother’s heart.” He stood as Peter wept, covering his face as he tried to crawl away. Then he turned and stared out beyond the fence. “This night might have ended differently, had a father’s heart had not cried out to me in desperation and fear. There is more work to do before it is over.” He raised a hand and the green light that surrounded him swirled out to surround the house, keeping out anyone who might interfere. A sound caught his ear and he went to the gate and sighed.

“Hagrid.”

“L-L-Lord Cernunnos, sir! I didn’t expect to see you here!” the half giant said, startled. “What… what are ye doing here?”

“Hagrid, why are ye here, lad?” the old god asked.

“Well, beggin’ yer pardon, Lord Cernunnos, but Headmaster Dumbledore sent me here to find little Harry and bring ‘im back to Hogwarts.” Hagrid twisted the cloth he had in his hands anxiously.

“Really? And what if Harry’s parents say no?”

Hagrid’s eyes widened. “Well, thing is, sir, they’re _dead_, that’s why I’m here.”

“And how do ye know this, Hagrid?” Cernunnos asked, watching the half-giant’s face closely.

Hagrid stared at him for a moment, then said, “Well… because Perfesser Dumbledore told me so! Told me _Hagrid, I’m afraid the Potters have fallen, and their son is alone at Godric’s Hollow. You must go find him, and bring him here to me, at Hogwarts, for his safety._”

Cernunnos only just managed not to sigh heavily. “Hagrid, lad, there is much yeh don’t know. Yeh canna trust Dumbledore, he’s not the man he makes himself out to be.” He held one massive hand up to stop Hagrid’s protest. “This house is under _Fidelius_. How did yeh find it, Hagrid?”

“Well… Dumbledore told me the secret!” Hagrid said stoutly. 

“And how did he manage that?”

Hagrid stared at the god for a long moment, then with a shaking hand, he pulled a scrap of parchment from his pocket and laid it in Cernunnos’ wide palm. “Sirius Black wrote that out and gave it ‘im, and he give it to me.”

Cernunnos fixed the half giant with a stern eye. “And who told you Sirius Black wrote this?”

“No one, Lord Cernunnos, sir. But everyone knows Sirius Black is the Secret Keeper, so it has to be his handwritin’!”

“Everyone knows,” the god rumbled idly as he ran his fingers over the parchment strip, “an’ that means… tis no longer _secret_. Which defeats the purpose of the secret.” 

Hagrid frowned. “I… I don’t understand…”

“Aye, and well I know it, lad, which means I can’t trust yeh any longer. Leave, and tell yer master not to venture into the Forbidden Forest any time soon, or the Wild Hunt will be upon him for what he’s done to those under my protection…”

“Lord Cernunnos, sir…” Hagrid began, horrified, but he stepped back when the god roared at him.

“_GO!!_” Cernunnos bellowed, with the fury of the ancient forest in his voice. “Go back to Dumbledore and warn him, Lord Cernunnos does not take his interference kindly, and the Wild Magic will have its say!”

Hagrid turned and ran, not waiting to be told again.

Cernunnos sighed heavily, the exhaustion of the night beginning to settle in his bones. He wouldn’t be able to stay in this body much longer, but he had one more of his children to speak to. 

A grim raced up the path, then hesitated at the gate before suddenly growing into a man and darting forward. “James?” Then he stepped back, eyes wide with fear. “Lord Cernunnos? What… are they all right? Is Harry all right?”

Cernunnos smiled. “I am glad to hear yeh ask. Yes, Harry and his mother are fine, and James will be momentarily. But first, my lad, we must talk.” James was rising closer to the surface, the old god thought, and his speech patterns becoming dominant again. 

He could see Sirius was longing to rush into the house to confirm it for himself. Only his love for James was keeping him in place, that and the bargain he’d made with the old god. “I am here, my Lord,” Sirius said.

“I do not have much more time, so listen to me carefully, dear one.” He reached out to touch Sirius cheek lightly with his fingertips. 

Sirius stilled and calmed, the tension in his body easing, and Cernunnos knew Sirius would listen now. “Yeh cannot trust Dumbledore. None of yeh can. James called on me, and I helped him destroy Voldemort. After this night, Thomas Marvolo Riddle, the Dark Lord Voldemort, is _done_. He won’t be back. But Dumbledore thinks he will, and he will go after James’ bairn for his own dark purposes.”

“Dumbledore… dark?” Sirius asked… then he frowned as clarity seemed to come into his mind from the old god’s touch. “He set this up. He meant for them to die… and me, too…”

“Aye, laddie, he did. All the better to control the Heir of Avalon.”

At that, Sirius’ eyes widened, as if everything had suddenly become clear. “We can’t stay here.”

“No, lad, you can’t. None of you. The four of you must flee, far far away. There are other wild places in the world, other powers that can mask yeh from Dumbledore,” said Cernunnos. “Raise him well to be a good strong man, and when it’s time, he’ll return to these shores and defeat the Dark Lord.”

“But you said… Tom Riddle was done,” said Sirius with a frown.

“Aye, Sirius, he is,” said Cernunnos, already feeling himself starting to fade. “The prophecy never said it was about Riddle. Oh, and lad, leave Pettigrew alone, and don’t trust Remus.”

“Don’t trust Remus? But…”

“He’s Dumbledore’s man, through and through,” said Cernunnos, his knees starting to buckle. “He’ll betray you if you listen to him. Avoid him, laddie… avoid.. him…”

Sirius reached out as the massive body shrank into a more familiar shape, and he caught James before he hit the ground. James was sweating profusely and shaking, but seemed otherwise unharmed.

He looked up at Sirius. “That,” he said, his voice heavy with exhaustion, “… was _weird_.”

Sirius threw his head back and laughed heartily, and James grinned up at him tiredly. “Only you, Prongs! Only you!” 

A lazy hand flapped against Sirius’ chest, and James sighed. “Got any Pepper-Up on you?”

A quick flick from the dimensional store on his wrist, and Sirius popped the cork out of the vial and tipped it into James’ mouth. “Brewed it myself last night,” he said. After James’ ears finished steaming, he helped his friend up. “Let’s go check on Lils and Pronglet. We need to leave and we need to leave _soon_.”

The faint sound of a cranky toddler came from upstairs and Sirius cocked his eyebrow meaningfully.

“I agree,” said James, and they hurried into the ruined cottage.

Lord Cernunnos watched from the trees and turned when he heard a rustle behind him. “Ah, Cerridwen, a gift for thy cauldron.”

A woman stepped through the trees and came to his side, touching his shoulder and easing the residual ache he felt. She took the earthenware jug he offered her. “Ah, the soul of he who sought knowledge not meant for mortals,” Cerridwen said as she ran light fingers over the glazed surface of the jug… then paused and looked up at him with a frown. “This is not his whole soul…”

“No, love,” he said softly, knowing it would distress her.

“He violated his own soul?” She looked horrified, then her lips primmed in anger. “Well, he’ll not be returnin’ to the cycle! Tis banishment he’ll be facin’!”

“I’ll collect all his shards, love, and ye can banish ‘im yerself.”

Her eyes flashed, and then she looked toward the windows of the house in Godric’s Hollow. “And the bairn?”

“As ye will, love,” he said, putting an arm around her. “I’ll never deny thy Mother-Heart.”

Cerridwen smiled, then stepped quickly through the trees and he watched her raise her arms to the sky. Moonlight pooled around her, swirling around her feet and up her body, making her glow silver. “_Go with my blessing_,” she intoned, “_my cloak to hide you, my arms to protect you, my will to speed you, my love to strengthen your hearts_.” 

The swirling silver light around her rose up into a ball and shot into the house. Soon after, the two old gods felt the inhabitants leave by portkey.

“Tis time for you to leave, love,” Cernunnos said when she turned to face him again. “I will deal with what is to follow.”

Cerridwen drew the night around her like a cloak until only one sliver of moonlight touched her face. “Make him _pay_,” she whispered, and faded into the night.

“Aye, and that I will,” he answered, then turned back to look at the house. “And now, to make sure it’s obvious to any who come, and that a certain old meddler can’t conceal the truth.” He raised his hands and called forth the energy left by the battle and shaped it to replay, over and over again, so that no one who saw it could possibly doubt that Wild Magic answered James Potter, and Wild Magic helped him protect those he most loved. He reinforced it with Light and waves of love of family, fierce protective love, strong and true, emanated its energy from the site. And finally, he put the Seal of Cernunnos on it all, so that no matter what he did, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore would be able to do nothing to change it, hide it, or deny it. He would not be able to turn the child into a _cause cé·lè·bre,_ nor would he be able to do what he wished with the child and his money. Cernunnos chuckled to himself, satisfied with his mischief management. Then he, too, faded into the night, to go on to his rest after such an eventful night.


End file.
